Wood finishing apparatus



w. w. PARTEE ETAL `woon FINISHING APPARATUS Filed May e, 1941 Wfariee June 30, 1942.

Patented June-30,1942 i 2,288,585 woon riNrsmNG APPARATUS Watkins W. Partee and Milton Gray, Tenn., assignors to E. L. Bruce Co., Tenn., a corporation oi' Delaware Memphis, v Memphis,

IAY 18 |948 Application May 6, 1941, Serial No. 392,145

(Cl. Sil- 13) Claims.

Qur invention relates to the manufacture of factory finished Lwood flooring in the form of strips or blocks. In Patent No. 2,276,253 granted March 10, 1942, there is disclosed a machine and process ,for producing finished woodl iflooring that has a finish that deeply penetrates the wood, as differentiated from Wood Ilnishes that merely lie on the surface of the wood, and that is tough and elastic, not readily scratched, of good lustre and more durable than prior finishes.

In the above patent, the finishing composition, and stain (when required) and filler were separately applied and in an unheated condition to the cold wood in the order stated, said material being of such character that there was secured a final blending and combination of finish and/or stain, and/or filler in the surface and sub-surface of the wood, all of these materials drying as a unit in the later operations, leading up to and incident to the production of the Vfinal finish and polish of the wood. After the finish and filler had been applied and rubbed into the lwood,

however, it has been necessary heretofore to subject the thus treated Wood to curing or air drying for at least 12 hours before applying the wax or other polishing composition. This interim would vary i, in duration depending upon. the humidity and temperature conditions prevailing at the time. This necessitated large storage space for the semi-finished flooring and slowed down the output. I In the present invention, the total time expended `from the beginning to the end of the operation is about 12 minutes in one integral and continuous operation as compared to as much as three days by the prior process. In addition, the final finish, While of the same general character, is superior.

The operation of the machine and process will be described in connection with the finishing of strip liooring although it is equally applicable to the finishing of block flooring or other wood flooring. Generally speaking, the machine consists of a series of instrumentalities for treating the surface of the wood, which is kiln dried and has a smooth sanded face, the Wood being continuously fed past these instrumentalities by a conveyor belt on which the strips of wood are supported. The composition is sprayed on the upper smooth sanded surface of the wood, brushed, heated by passing under a series of infra-red lamps, brushed again and rubbed in, then heated further under a series of infra-red lamps, subjected to further brushing, rubbing in, and bufng, then a coating of paste wax is applied and polished until dry and hard.

Referring to the drawimi` LOI' amore complete disclosure of the invention.

Figs. la and 1b represent a plan view of the `machine, 1b being a continuation in the same straight line as 1a, the entire machine being about 200 feet long; l

Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1a; and

Fig. 3 is a similar view on the line 3-3 of Fig. la.

The machine consists of side frames I and between these traverses the endless rubber belt 2, which overlies a sheet metal plate 3. The belt at each end is supported by pulleys 4 and 5 and is driven by the motor 6 through the speed reducer 1, belt connection 8 and pulley 5. The flooring strips 9 are placed on the belt conveyor 2 by an operator and pass under a steel pressure roller I0 to insure a flat horizontalsurface of flooring, as they pass under the spray booth il, where the nishing composition and filler and color is applied. The strips are in tongue and groove engagement as seen in Figs. 2 and 3 and the longitudinal tongue side I3 may engage a corresponding groove along the side of the -machine, spring steel flat springs I3 on one side of the line, spaced about every 6 feet, keeping the strips of fiooring together by forcing it to one side. l The particular type of composition that We apply to the surface of the floor is what is known as a penetrating seal finish, an example of such being disclosed inthe patent to F. H. Lyons 2,066,- 296 granted Dec. 29, 1936J except for the paraffin wax which should be practically eliminated. Compositions of this character contain such skin forming drying oils as linseed oil and China wood oil and a resin, all in a volatile solvent such as naphtha. Such compositions have the property of rapidly penetrating the wood when applied. These compositions, after evaporation of the volatile solvent or vehicle, dry and harden, either by oxidation o'r polymerization. The usual silex filler and a dye or stain. can be thoroughly mixed with the finishing composition, the different ingredients being miscible with eachother and applied by a mechanically operated spray in a predetermined quantity per unit of area to secure an even and uniform distribution over the surface of the wood. When applied to maple ooring, a dense and closed pore Wood, rather than red oak flooring, a less dense and open 'pored wood, the filler may be dispensed with.

The coating composition may consist of a finish and stain, a finish and filler, or finish, stain Russin-:n

. moisture.

, revolving bristle brush I2, driven by the motor I I through the belt I5. This brush spreads the composition uniformly over the surface of the wood. The ooring next meets the revolving burlap pad buflerv I6 which further uniformly spreads and removes any surplus composition. All the successive brushes or pads. rotating on a vertical axis are driven through an lindependent motor and belt arrangement of the same kind as drives the brush I2, and they can be swung up vertically on a horizontal pivot,4 H lof the surface of the Awood, for changing and cleaning brushes and pads.

Following the operations just described, the flooring enters the flrst infra-redlight line I1,

Athis particular line being about 30 feet long and containing a single row of 250 watt infrared lamps 24. These lamps 24 are spaced about Y V2 inches on centers, 4-5 inches above the surface of the floor and maintain an oven heat of about 165 degrees F. The lamps are enclosed in a tunnel formed on the bottom by the belt or flooring and on the sides and top by sheet metal plates I8 supported on angle iron framing I9, the purpose of the tunnel being merely to conserve heat and avoid cross currentsrof air, which would deflect the rays.

The flooring, after it leaves the tunnel at a temperature of about 13o-135 degrees F., passes under a revolving bristle brush 20, then passes under another revolving bristle brush 2I. These two operations serve to rub the materials in and fill up the minute depressions, and also to distribute them in a more uniform way, on the surface of the flooring, and to some extent remove the marks leftr by the previous distributing brushes `which have operated on the surface of the flooring before it entered the first light line The flooring now enters a second line 23 of infra-red lamps 25 which is spaced about 5 feet from the first line, the tunnel being formed of plates I8, in substantially the same way as the tunnel in the line I'I. The tunnel is of the same length as'the first tunnel and the lamp arrangement is otherwise the same as in the first tunnel except that there are twice as many lamps in the two rows,as in the line I1. The oven temperature in the line 23 is about 210 degrees F. and the wood .as it leaves the oven is about 172 degrees F.

Due to the different temperature conditions and the diierent progressive conditions of the impregnating composition in the two sections, the

changes that takeplace may be explained in part as follows z' In the first tunnel, the radiant heat drives out `some of the moisture in the wood and which may inhibit proper penetration of the coating composition or adversely affect the final finish. The kiln dried wood normally contains about 8% The moisture which evaporated in part as indicated, will be replaced by the finishing composition. The heat also makes the nish-` mg composition more fluid, reducing its viscosity *A so that it has increased penetrating properties.

composition and the fox-'ming of a rmer nal bond in the wood. Chemical changes in the composition are also started in the first section, the nish setting up and holding the filler.

In the second' heat section,'substantially all of the solvents in the composition are removed by evaporation and the final set of the finish and filler' is completed. In this heat section oxidation or-'polymerization of certain ingredients go to completion and this action is complete not only for the surface portion but for that portion of the composition that has penetrated deeply into throughout the entire thickness of finishing composition and the wood. The effect seems to be that the wood is heated from the inside out, as dierentiated from mere surface heating of the wood by conduction from the outside in.`

Since the composition used is of a character that penetrates the wood, the whole mass of composition isv affected and not merely case hardned on the surface which condition would seal in the wood, the excess moisture in the wood, and the volatile components of the composition. There is also a more uniform distribution of the coating composition, when it is worked and rubbed in While in a heated condition.

After leaving the light section 23, the flooring meets the revolving bristle brushes 26, 2'I and 28 ythe travel of the flooring along the line. removes surplus filler, raised grain and extended which further work and rub in the composition. They also serve to lay the foundation for the final gloss and sheen by starting to polish and buff the surface of the wood while it is still Warm.

Following these three brushes, is a high speed cylindrical bristle brush 29 driven by the motor 30, which removes any circular streaks from the prior brushes. Following this is another revolving bristle brush 3l that removes any foreign surplus material.

The next operation consists of a steel wool buffer 32 that reciprocates back'and forth with This particles of Wood fibre that may be on the sur-` face of the flooring.

Following the steel wool buffer, there is a regulated compressed air blower 33, directing a current of air on the surface of the flooring that removes all particles of steel wool and other loose material and also serves to cool to a certain degree, the surface of the flooring, in preparation for its reception of the waxing that is to follow.

The next operation on theooring is to apply to the upper surface a coating of wax. This is done by means of a revolving roller 34 that has a felt pad applied over it and is warmed by contact with the heated flooring and so set that the movement of the flooring below the roller, revolves the roller which rotates through a quantity of paste wax in a pan or hopper 35. As the flooring is fairly warm at this point the roller pad is kept constantly warm and thereby moist with melted wax. The temperature of the roller being slightly above the melting point of the 'wax enables a much more even distribution of wax over the face of the ooring than would be otherwise obtained. Heating of the wax may be augmented by a light focused directly on the Wax, in the case of higher melting waxes.

The flooring then proceeds to four revolving bristle brushes 36, the purpose ofv these brushes being to thoroughly polish the surface of the flooring. These brushes are placed at predetermined distances so as to give sufficient time for the cooling of the fiooringzand so that the wax polishing operation may be completed before the iiooring reaches the nal bundling sec- A tion table. Y

At several points of thefinishing line, steel rollers 31 which are idle, are placed on top of the flooring to prevent any pieces from getting out of line and disrupting the continuous operation. v

If desired, the bottom of the yiiooringcan have applied to it a coating of paraiiin wax as itpasses over the receptacle 38 carrying the liquid paraflin. i

VOne of the advantages of our processarises out of the fact that the finishing composition and the wood is mechanically worked on while in a warmed or heated condition. This is particularly advantageous in connection with the penetrating seal type of finish as described herein. For example, the wood ller in normal use is Y applied cold and is rubbed into the cold surface readily. The amount of effort required in rubbing in the ingredients of the finishing composition is greatly reduced when the wood is worked on while in a heated condition and a more even and uniform distribution of them is obtained,

such evenness and uniformity of distribution being important for' a good finish job.

Other means for heatingthe flooring than by infra-red lamps could be used but the infra-red lamps have beenfound satisfactory in use.

We claim:

1. An apparatus for nishing wood flooring comprising means for applying a composition to the surface of the wood, means for heating the coated surface of the wood, means for polishing the heated surface of the wood and means for conveying the flooring past the aforesaid means in the order stated.

2. An apparatus for finishing Wood flooring comprising means for applying a composition to the surface of the wood, infra-red lamps for heating the coated surface ofthe Wood, means for polishing the heated surface of the wood and means for conveying the flooring past the aforesaid means in the order stated.

3. An apparatus for finishing wood flooring, comprising means for applying a composition to the surface of the wood, means for heating the coated surface of the wood to condition it for polishing, means for applying a polishing com'- position lto the surface of the Wood and means 'for conveying the flooring past the aforesaid 5. An apparatus for finishing wood flooring y comprising means for applying a composition to the surface of the wood, an oven containing a. series of infra-red lamps supported above the surface of the wood for heating the surface of the wood, means for polishing the coated surface of the wood after it leaves the oven and means for conveying the iiooring past the said instrumentalities in the order stated.

W. W. PARTEE. MILTON GRAY. 

